HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men’s soccer team opened the 2013 season with a 1-1 draw with Holy Cross on Friday night at Burnham Field.

The Big Green (0-0-1) are no strangers to overtime as they had six games go into extra time last year. However, the game with the Crusaders (0-2-1) was the first tie since Nov. of 2011 against Brown.

The tie snapped a two-match losing streak for Holy Cross, who lost 3-1 to the Green and White a year ago.

Dartmouth opened the scoring in the 33rd minute as Colin Heffron played a beautiful ball to Robin Alnas who turned and fired a shot in the upper 90 past Crusaders goalkeeper Kevin Wright. After a slow start, the Big Green controlled much of the tempo entering the half with an 11-1 advantage in shots.

The second half was a much different story as Holy Cross came out aggressive and stole back the momentum. The Crusaders tied the game at one after Josh Cintas converted a deflection in front of the Big Green net in the 59th minute.

The play was set up as Monty Sanders’ shot was turned away by the diving Dartmouth goalkeeper, Stefan Cleveland. The deflection ended up on the foot of Cintas who snuck the shot just inside the right post. Cleveland thought he kept the ball in play, but the whistle was blown and the score was knotted at one.

In his first collegiate start, Cleveland would bounce back nicely as he made the save of his young career diving to his right to stop a penalty kick off the foot of Cintas late in the second half.

After the penalty Holy Cross fired the rebound at Cleveland who stood strong, making the save. The rush in front of the net was the last threat for the Crusaders.

In overtime, Dartmouth had two chances as a cross off the foot of Heffron just missed a sliding Stefan Defregger at the far post. Alex Adeabu, who came on late in regulation for Dartmouth, had the other chance as he raced past two Holy Cross defenders before having the ball deflected out of bounds.

Cleveland made a career-high seven saves for the Big Green while Wright made four for the Crusaders. Dartmouth held the advantage in corner kicks, 2-1, and shots, 16-13.

Dartmouth returns to the pitch on Monday, Sept. 9 as it hosts Boston College in non-conference action at Burnham Field.